


Starlight

by Amsharp



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9162955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amsharp/pseuds/Amsharp
Summary: Latia was your average young lady. She'd wake up, go to work, go home, and spend her time with friends and family. This average life way very quickly derailed when she found out aliens exist, there's a giant intergalactic war going on, and the war is between the aliens and human warriors in giant mecha space cats. Now she's supposed to help them somehow? (Shiro/OC)





	1. Space Cats

"I'm Home" Called a young woman as she moved to brush her brown bangs of hair out of her face. She let out a tired sigh as the door slammed shut from her leaning against the hard wooden surface. Without another second of delay, the soft clanking of thin metal dog tags could be heard as a fair sized Shiba Inu rushed to the door. "Hi Disney" the woman cooed as she pet the dog showing it with its desired attention and affection that had been missing as she was away at work all day. Intent on being as close as possible to their owner Disney pressed and leaned into the woman's thin legs causing her to laugh. "No stop you silly pup, you're getting your fur all over my work clothes. Give me a minute" She stated through her smiling chuckles as she gently nudged the large dog away so she could go to the bedroom of her single bedroom apartment and change into more casual day clothes.

"Query play messages" She stated as she changed only for the The interactive household system to reply.

'You have 1, new message' beeeeep. 

"Hey, Latia!" announced the voice of a rather energetic female "Don't forget the gangs getting together for movies and drinks. You said you'd bring the chips" The recording reminded with a chuckle. "oh and make sure you park in the lot down the road there's some construction or something going on a few blocks down that make it impossible to get to the complex." They explained sounding rather irritated about the large road block. "Anyways, see you in a few hours, I'll tell you all about it."

'end of message. You have no more new messages.' Beeeeep.

Latia shook her head at the reminder but it was appreciated, she'd been really spacey lately and forgetting even the simplest of tasks. Once her black work dress was replaced with a red t-shirt, a pair of blue jean shorts over a pair of black ankle length leggings she threw on her olive drab green hoodie and went to find her sneakers. "Disney, do you want to go on a walk, hmm? Do you want to go on a walk before I have to leave for a bit?" She asked in her usual babying tone that she'd use with the dog when she was on her own. Naturally, the dog started running laps through the apartment as she went to get his leash. "Of course you do how silly of me" she replied as if they'd spoken though she noticed the leash she'd planned to use had a small tear starting to form in the fabric near the clasp. "Dang it…." She muttered under her breath before looking to the excited pup, feeling a bit guilty that she'd gotten them riled up when the leash was in less than ideal condition. "It should last for one more walk. I'll pick up a new leash when I go buy chips afterward." She thought, making the mistake of attaching the faulty leash to the dog's collar. Latia put on her headphones and started up her walking the dog playlist of music before leading Disney outside for their walk to begin.

The walk went well for the more part but as they drew closer to outer boundaries of the busy suburban town Disney became more and more restless. Latia struggled to hold back the pulling dog which only caused him to pull on the leash harder and harder before it inevitably snapped allowing him to run free. "Disney no! Get back here!" She cried out as she chased after the sprinting canine. Before long the chase led her into a forested area that was near her friend's development. "D-Disney!" She called feeling rather useless as she searched for any sign of the pup. "Disney!" she called again as she walked only to find police tape in her path causing her fear to skyrocket. But sure enough, she could hear her dog barking from somewhere on the other side of the tape. "okay Latia. You can do this. If you run into the police you can just explain what happened. Right." She coached herself as she ducked under the tape and began running once more in the direction of the barking.

Strangely enough, as she searched she didn't find a single other human being. Not one. No police cars, no tire tracks. "How did the police even get out here?" She wondered realizing the tape was clearly new but there were no other signs of activity. Her thoughts were cut short as she looked down of a cliff to see a large white machine that seemed to be in the shape of some sort of cat maybe? "Oooooh, I should not be here…" She whispered fearing that she'd stumbled onto some sort of new military tech that the police were hiding. Yet lo and behold there was Disney standing in front of the darn thing and barking at it with his tail waving happily behind him.

"Disney" she hissed quietly trying to get the dog's attention as she looked for a way to get down to them. Rather than looking for some sort of slope down she instead climbed her way down the 50-foot cliff, clinging as tightly to the cliff face as possible. Once her feet were safely on the ground she hurried over to the dog. She quickly grabbed onto his collar and worked on attaching the remains of the leash to his collar by sliding the broken end under the collar then through the handle allowing the handle to work as a sort of slipknot as she pulled the tattered end. "Well that's the last time I trust a frayed leash" she stated with a sigh as she pet the very content dog that got a walk a run and to be pet. Once she was content and her nerves calmed she looked up at the machine only to jump back upon finding that it seemed to have moved to be looking at her while she wasn't paying attention. "Okay well, that's freaky." She squeaked out as her nerves rocketed back up and she moved to stand between Disney and the behemoth machine.

Before Latia could do anything else the machine sprang to life before her eyes picking up her and her dog in its mouth and tossing them into the cockpit. "Oh my gosh. Okay, don't panic. Don't panic. How do I turn this thing off and get out? What the heck." She said under her breath as she looked around to try and find a power button or a key, anything to get the situation back under control. Instead, it only spiraled more and more out of control as the beast sprang into the air and flew into the sky and rather quickly into space. "no, no, no, no. STOP!" Latia called out as the machine seemed to have a mind of its own.

She quickly grabbed onto one of the two levers in front of her and pulled back on it, causing the lion-like mech to spin before slowing to a stop as the windows showed the distant planet earth. "That worked?" She stated shocked as she stared at the small blue and green planet. She'd figured out how to work the thing? Kinda? "Ha, it worked!" she cheered as she looked to Disney to find that he was content waiting in the back as his owner sorted all of this crazy stuff out.

While she was distracted it seemed the Lion again had its own plans causing the leaver Latia was holding to fly forward pulling her into the console which caused her to push several buttons, one of which opened a large wormhole in front of them. Latia ran her hand through her short inverted bob cut hair as she silently admitted it was time to panic.

On the other end of the wormhole rested a peaceful planet where a large futuristic castle's defense system proved its worth.

'Wormhole detected' it's screen warned as it flashed the message repeatedly to two people with pointed ears and bright pastel colored marks under their eyes.

"Princess, a wormhole has been picked up by our scanners" stated a rather tall slender man with orange hair.

"What? Could it be the Galra? Quick Coran, assemble the paladins!" the princess in question called as she hurried to check the skies and see the portal for herself. Doing as he was told Coran quickly set of the castle alarms to and announced through the intercom

"Zarkon is coming! They'll likely target the castle! Everyone, gather quickly in the control room we must be prepared for launch!" the mustachioed man cried into the mic for all to hear.

Deep within the castle, a short haired brunette looked up at the loudspeaker. "Man, is this another drill again? Cause I just got out of that Cryo-pod. Drilling is not on my to-do list right now." Despite the grumbling, the young man gave an audible groan and begrudgingly shuffled off to make his way to the control room.

Sure enough, as everyone began to gather the lion appeared through the portal and showed up on the scanner. The screen zoomed in to show the beastly machine to all that had gathered and subsequently confused the lot of them.

"A lion?" Alura stated quietly as she looked at the quickly approaching ship. there it was. A white lion "That's… that's not possible." She replied as she looked to Coran with confusion. There were only 5 Voltron lions.

"Are we sure it's not some sort of fake made to confuse us into lowering our defenses?" Keith asked as he made his way over to look at the screen as well, with Pidge and Hunk not far behind.

"What's this about a new lion?" Lance asked curiously as he picked up his pace. This was much more interesting than a drill. "Whoa, you never told us there was a 6th lion Alura. Is that one yours?"

"I was only ever told of 5 lions. And Voltron is able to form perfectly fine." She replied as she continued to stare at the screen perplexed. "I must speak with my father about this. Paladins, be prepared to defend the castle!" she ordered before walking off to go and talk to her father about this strange new turn of events.

"Whatever it is it's coming in fast" Shiro noted as he looked out the window to see the mech very quickly approaching the bridges.

"Pull up dang it!" Latia shouted at the beastly ship while pulling on the levers again. While they hadn't worked when she tried to keep it from going through the wormhole and towards the planet, This time the beast listened slowing down enough to land on the bridge in front of the castle. Once the lion had safely landed, the beast let out a roar jostling the cockpit. "Ugh… Well, that could have been left out… but it seems we made it" Latia said with a sigh of relief though she was rather visibly shaking from the adrenaline rush as she looked back to her canine companion. "Disney, are you doing ok back their buddy?" She asked only for the dog to hurry over to her side and press into her legs like the giant fluffy scaredy cat that it was. "We'll figure this out bud" she added as she ran her fingers through the dog's fur while staring at the large intimidating building in front of her. What lived there, where they friendly? Was the air outside safe to breathe?

These questions plagued Latia for a while and those inside were beginning to notice. "It's just standing there" Pidge stated confused as she watched with a raised eyebrow.

"Coran, can you get the particle barrier online?" Shiro asked, receiving a quick nod in reply as he set up the large blue barrier around the castle.

"That ought to do it," Coran replied as the shield was set in place.

"Alright team let's go, Hunk you and Keith get you your lions." The black paladin stated as he put on his helmet. "Pidge, lance and I will go out and see if it's empty. If it's hostile you guys need to be ready to cover us so we can get back into the barrier and join you. Coran listen for our signal with that barrier" Shiro listed after as he motioned for pidge and Lance to follow.

As the particle barrier dropped Latia went 5 shades paler. Whatever was in there didn't seem to want her to get any closer, not that she planned to try and move the lion any closer anyways. Time felt like it was passing at the pace of a snail before she noticed three figures emerge from the building. They looked, human. "What on earth." She said under her breath as the 3 exited the barrier and stopped in front of the lion. Part of her was curious and wanted to investigate, but the other sane part of her was much more worried about the chance of suffocation by going into an atmosphere that might be toxic to her.

Again the lion seemed to have different plans as it pulled back her seat and forcibly dumped Latia out leaving her to tumble to the ground. Acting quickly when she realized she was going to be pushed out, Latia pinched her nose and held her breath no matter how badly the tumble stung.

"It's a person" Pidge stated shocked as they stared at the terrified young woman that was still holding her breath.

"It's ok you don't need to hold your breath it's safe to breathe here," Shiro stated as he realized the same thing. The person was harmless and frightened.

She couldn't hold her breath forever she knew that, so figuring she might as well try trusting them she loosened the vice grip on her nose that left the skin a bright red before taking as short breath to test the air. With that out of the way, Latia went back to breathing normally as she very quickly got up and backed away.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Latia asked as she looked between the three while Shiro walked off to talk with the others through his communication system, letting them know the coast was clear and the barrier could be turned off for now.

"The name's Lance, Voltron paladin, defender of the universe at your service" He gloated openly as he conveniently left out introducing the others "What's a beautiful woman like yourself doing out in a place like this?" He asked laying it on rather thick since it had been a while since he'd been around someone he could flirt with.

It was at least one question, sort of answered. "I was hoping you'd be able to answer that too. I was just trying to walk my dog when we ended up finding this thing and it ate us and somehow I ended up in space and now I'm here." She explained feeling 10 times crazier now that she had to actually say all of that out loud.

"I believe I might be able to answer your questions" Stated Alura as she walked over to join the others. "We have much to discuss. Come with me inside and I'll do my best to explain everything." She added with a gentle smile as she noticed the young lady before her was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"Right. Um. One second." She replied before looking up to the area where she'd fallen from. "Disney, come on boy come on down." She called up though she honestly wasn't sure how to get the poor thing down. Before Disney could simply jump down the lion lowered its head making a much more manageable to exit ramp for the canine as Latia walked very cautiously passed it not realizing that Disney had picked up an extra bit from the lion on his way out as the group of 5 walked back into the castle.

"My name is Princess Alura, and this is my castle," Alura stated as they walked into the large spacious building. "Shiro, Lance, and Pidge are each paladins of Voltron. They use lions similar to the one you arrived in to create Voltron the defender of the universe." She explained as they made their way into the main room of the castle. "The white lion is in fact, legitimate. It was made and hidden when Zarkon began his attacks, to act as and additional hidden paladin should the time come that we need an upper hand. To make Voltron even stronger." She explained and in some ways repeated her father verbatim.

"That's really interesting and all. And I'm er, glad that you got your lion back Princess. But I'm still really confused by all of this and why I'm in outer space on a different planet." She replied while still trying to piece everything together while keeping what last shreds of sanity she had left.

"The lion chooses its paladin, I believe you're meant to pilot the white lion," Alura replied as she turned to face Latia causing the brunette to drop her dog's leash from surprise.

"Me? Whoa no I mean" Latia stumbled over her words as she tried to find the right thing to say. There was still so much she didn't understand. Heck, just an hour ago she didn't even think Alien life was real. "I'm not exactly a garrison pilot. The only license I have is for a car." Latia replied as she scratched at the back of her head. "Besides, I got the sense whatever that thing is, it wasn't too thrilled when I tried turning it around." She added after though her words trailed off as she finally realized that her dog had brought something with him from the lion.

"Disney no come back here with that, that's not yours," Latia stated as she followed after her fluffy companion to take the strange device only for it to shift to take the form of a shield which threw her off balance. It only grew further and as she regained her balance the shield dropped and pierced into the floor in front of her. Seeing the damage she'd caused made Latia's expression to drop "I. I'll find a way to repay for the damage I'm so sorry." She stated as she got a sinking feeling that she wouldn't be getting out of this situation anytime soon.

Shiro winced feeling some form of sympathy for the floor that was pierced by the large shields laser-like pointed end. While this newcomer didn't seem overly confident or sure about the situation the princesses confidence was enough for the leader to agree to the new member. "You'll just need some training. We're all pretty new to this too." He offered as he looked to Alura who seemed pleased by the fact that the bayard reacted to this new recruit.

"Ah good, you've already found your bayard. That's handy. There should be a suit for you in your lion as well. Once you're properly suited up I believe Shiro is Right. Some extra training is in order" the princess stated to Latia before giving a Nod to Shiro to try and signal for him to call the other to get prepped for training.

Latia looked between each of the new faces once more while piecing together the last of the information in her mind. so there was some massive alien invasion going on. And somehow she was supposed to start training to help stop it. Every ounce of common sense in her was screaming for her to run away. And yet here she was still standing there staring at this 'bayard' because strangely this was all starting to make sense. She stared at the shield a moment longer before giving a sigh of defeat.

"I'm not a soldier… but if you think there's something I can do to help then I'll do my best" She replied before lightly shaking her head. This is going to be one heck of a story when she gets home.


	2. Personal Progress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey~ look at that it's another chapter. This one starts off a bit slow but things will start picking up about halfway through the chapter and should keep picking up from here ^^ thanks for your patience with me as I set up the plot for this story.
> 
> Song suggestion: Kadenza - Trinity

Latia let out another sigh as she walked out of the room she'd been assigned now changed into her new uniform. The uniform looked like the ones that the other paladins had been wearing. The suit had a tight black base layer with white armor attached to it, though, where there's had color hers was blank.

As she walked away she frowned sadly upon hearing the rather pathetic whines of her pup. She left Disney there with a ball so they'd have something to do while she was gone.

"This is going to take some getting used to for the both of us." She muttered to herself as she kept walking.

Before long she found the training room that she'd been told about where everyone was waiting for her to show up.

"So this is the new recruit then ay?" Coran asked as he walked over to greet Latia with the others not far behind. "Nice to have you join us, we could always use the extra muscle. My name's Coran"

"Nice to meet you as well. My name's Latia. Hopefully, I can find a way to help out then" She replied with a nod as she looked at the group, there were a few more people in the group that she didn't know.

"I suppose we should introduce everyone else too. This here is Shiro, he's the captain of the team so he'll usually run the drills If I'm busy repairing the castle." Coran explained as Shiro gave a small wave before moving on "This is Hunk,"

"Hi," Hunk replied with a rather large happy smile.

"and Pidge they're your go-to people if you need help with technology," Coran explained as Pidge adjusted her glasses.

"Hey," She added giving a similar short wave in greeting.

"Then we have Keith, you won't find a better quick maneuver pilot" Coran stated before covering his mouth slightly "Though he's still a bit rough around the edges" he added though Keith heard anyways and just shrugged.

"And I'm Lance, pretty much the best at everything" He replied as he slid to stand next to Latia while flexing.

"So you've mentioned," Latia stated while taking a step away with an awkward attempt at trying to smile at Lance. It wasn't anything personal, it's just that she was used to being mistaken for a teenager since she was only 24 and a bit shorter than average. Either way, having people nearly half a decade younger than her flirt with her was embarrassing and awkward. "I look forward to getting to work with you all," She added which caused Coran to give a nod of approval.

"Right then, let's get to work. No time to dilly dally. Everyone put on your neural links. Let's start with some syncing practice and see if we can't find out what that white lion is for." Coran stated as he led the group to the center of the room, then went off to gather the devices and hand them out. Once Latia had hers she looked it over before watching the others put on theirs, to try and figure out which way was the front then hesitantly sat down in the circle with the others and put hers on.

'Oooh my gosh this feels really weird' Latia thought as she tried to adjust to the new sensation of being connected to 5 other people.

'you get used to it after a while' she heard in her mind, though the voice was not her own causing her to jolt to attention.

'holy heck no, what, nope, don't like this, nope nope nope' she thought as she realized just how little control she had over her own thoughts. Anything she'd think while wearing this thing was being immediately broadcasted.

'Hey just calm down Latia it's not like we're gonna go through your brain, right guys' Lance thought trying to reassure her.

'huh? Oh yeah. Right, ' Hunk agreed though his face showed signs of guilt.

'Hunk, you weren't snooping were you' pidge asked though she was visibly glaring at the larger teen.

'What me no…. yes, but we're supposed to be able to look in each other's heads. She can look in mine too if she wants.' Hunk thought as he scratched the back of his head. Latia glared at hunk half ready to tell him off but she was cut short.

'Everybody knock it off and focus on forming Voltron. We're training her not interrogating her.' Shiro mentally stated as he let out a sigh. Eventually, the exercise began and each paladin closed their eyes focusing on one thing, Voltron.

Feeling a bit more relax Latia closed her eyes as well and tried to get on the same pattern as the others. She wasn't sure what this Voltron thing was but the others did and it was enough for her to get in sync.

Coran watched happily from a distance as the paladins mentally formed Voltron with ease and the White lion appeared as well. Though his smile slowly faded as he realizes it wasn't doing anything. "Keep it up you're almost there. Latia focus on joining Voltron"

"I thought I was." She verbally admitted with a sigh but she kept trying all the same though hearing that it wasn't working was disheartening.

A good 10 minutes passed and eventually Coran let out a sigh of defeat. "Well. I guess it's a bit much to think this would explain what the white lion does. Why don't we try something else for now" He offered, causing the others to relax as they took off their helmets. "Let's try some group combat practice then. The gladiator should be a good team building exercise." He suggested before leaving the room to go up to the viewing deck.

"The gladiator?" Latia asked as her shoulders dropped while the others moved to stand and summon their bayard from their armor.

"Yeaaaah it's about as pleasant as it sounds" Hunk admitted as he had his bayard turn into a large Gatling-style gun. Seeing the large weapon kicked Latia into gear to stand up and summon her shield. This time around she seemed to do better with the weapon. It was still the same shape as before, but the shield didn't grow to be bigger than her. Instead, it was long enough to cover 3/4ths of her arm and was about half as wide as it was tall. She wasn't sure what this gladiator thing was but if it required a freaking Gatling gun she wanted to be ready.

"Hm… maybe I'm supposed to throw this? You know, Captain America style?" She suggested as she looked over the shield. Everyone else seemed to have a good offensive weapon to use, so hers just seemed really useless in a fight by comparison.

"I wouldn't try that, Bayards usually despawn the weapon if you let go," Pidge advised causing Latia to frown as she tried to figure out other uses for the kite-shaped shield.

"ok paladins on your mark" Coran stated from the viewing box. "Go!" he added shortly after as the large training robot dropped into the room and whirled to life. Latia and the others watched it cautiously as they tense up a bit. The machine then made its first move springing forward to attack Pidge.

Upon realizing that the gladiator was going to attack the smallest one first Latia jumped to action as well moving to stand in front of the youngest member with her shield raised only to be hit and flung effortlessly away from the group to skid against the ground.

"Latia you're out," Coran announced over the intercom system causing Latia to look up before dropping her head to tap against the ground.

"Well that didn't last long," She thought as she let go of the bayard and sure enough the shield despawned. The others didn't last much longer than she did as the gladiator seemed to be a rather difficult exercise for all of them. Hunk was the next to be picked off, followed by pidge, Lance, Keith then Shiro.

"Ok, I can see my mistake here. Probably should have worked on individual fighting first before trying to go with the group exercise." Coran admitted over the mic receiving an audible group of groans in response. "Everyone regroup I'll fix up the setting for individual training."

First up was Pidge who did seemingly well, making it passed the first 2 levels of the training dummy only to get knocked to the ground by the third level. Hunk and Lance met the same fate being too tired to fight well against the level 3 training dummy and ultimately getting wiped out. Keith, however, made it a bit further defeating level 3 only to get a much harder hit to the ground from the level 4 dummy.

"Ok Shiro you're up next" Coran instructed as he set the training dummy back down to level 1. When the dummy appeared Shiro took a deep breath before his arm began to glow a bright purple hue. Latia had been more than impressed with the others but found herself awestruck as the leader of the group rather effortlessly made it through the different levels using their rather unconventional weapon. She'd failed to notice it before due to her intent on just laying down after being defeated by the gladiator.

"If he's able to fight so well using a less than typical weapon, maybe I can figure out how to do that too. I just need to keep trying." She thought, feeling a renewed spark of determination. Despite having only gotten into this strange situation a few hours ago, she now felt a more genuine desire to contribute to the team.

Being rather observant Coran picked up on Latia's new found confidence of sort and let out a chuckle. "Ok Shiro, why don't you take a break for a bit and let Latia have a try." He announced as the level 5 Robot was taken down.

Shiro looked a bit surprised to have his training time paused but upon looking over and seeing the same determination that Coran spotted he gave a small smile. "Sure, no problem" He agreed before walking back to stand with the others. "Do your best." He stated giving a vote of confidence as Latia walked out to the training floor.

"Ok, here we go!" Coran announced pressing the continue button. It took him a few second before he realized his mistake having sent out the level 6 robot instead of a level 1 robot.

Latia, however, was none the wiser "the robot usually gives a few seconds for level 1 so if I use that to my advantage and prepare for its first hit I should" She thought as the robot was sent out her thoughts were very quickly cut off. Instead, the second the robot's feet hit the ground it swung its staff, hitting Latia with a hard enough electrified blow that it sent her flying into the wall with a thud causing everyone to wince.

"Combatant defeated" The robot announced as Latia laid on the floor clutching her side, before disappearing.

"Er… Sorry. About that…. I forgot to reset the difficulty level… you can try again, with a level 1 robot" Coran admitted sheepishly fearing that he'd broken the new human already.

Hearing Coran's apology caused Latia to lightly tap her head on the ground before pushing herself to get back up and take a slightly different stance. "One more try." She requested hoping it was loud enough to be heard.

"Right," Coran stated more than happy to oblige as Latia shuffled her way back to the starting position. She wasn't really in any condition to keep trying after only just taking a hit well beyond what she should have been able to handle but she didn't want to give up.

"Ok so that was what a level 5, er 6 robot? If that's how hard a 6 hits a level 1 hit won't feel as bad now." She reasoned as the new robot appeared. This time it followed the pattern she noticed before giving her enough time to block its first hit but she was unable to block the second hit which caused her to fall to the ground.

"Combatant defeated." The robot announced again causing Latia to let out an annoyed groan. Her determination was quickly replaced with frustration. How was she suppose to fight back if all she had was a shield!

Recognizing the frustrated groan for what it was Shiro stepped forward, "Let's take a break for today." He suggested as Latia again pushed herself back up onto her feet.

"Right, that might be for the best" Coran agreed over the intercom before shutting down the simulator and leaving the box to go back down to the main level of the training room.

Meanwhile, Latia felt all the more pathetic for it. "Thanks" She stated quietly as she put her bayard back into the storage space in her suit. Whether she wanted to admit it or not she wouldn't be able to do much more for the day.

"No problem. Don't be too hard on yourself though ok?" Shiro offered once she was standing properly. "You just got here, it's going to take some time for you to get the hang of all this. We'll focus on piloting lessons for now" He added after before giving her a pat on the shoulder and walking off with the others.

"Right…" She stated with a sigh as she followed for a bit but ultimately ended up in her newly assigned room. She plopped onto her bed with a sigh as Disney quickly jumped onto the bed to sit beside her.

"How am I going to get better at this? I don't know what I'm doing." She whispered quietly as she pet the fluffy shiba Inu. Getting knocked down hurt like nothing she'd felt before and to do that with everyone watching was all the more nerve-wracking. She thought over this for a while and the option of running away came to mind multiple times. In the end, she rejected the idea every time and went back to thinking about what she could do differently. "I need to try again." She decided as her determination began to rebuild. "I'll just train by myself when they're asleep. If I keep trying I'll figure it out." She stated, feeling more confident in her own words as Disney gave a yip and licked her face.

That night when she was sure everyone was asleep she snuck back into the training room and figured out how to use it by herself. This became her norm. She'd wake up early, work on piloting training with the paladins until noon, have lunch with them then they'd all go off to do their own things. During this time Latia would go get Disney take care of him then go explore the castle each day finding something different until dinnertime would roll around where she'd again enjoy getting to eat with the others and getting to know them. Once she was certain everyone had gone to sleep for the night she'd sneak out of her room and into the training room to keep up her combat training.

After three days of doing this, she was able to do simple maneuvers with the lion having picked up the basics of piloting the mechanical beast. She'd learned that Pidge was, in fact, a girl, a prodigy in every sense of the word and only 14 years old. She also learned that Hunk was a major foodie as he helped her figure out what to do about feeding Disney. In turn, she helped him with the idea of setting up a greenhouse room in the castle where he'd planned to put soil from each planet they visit and start growing different fruits, vegetables, and spices to put in his cooking once they'd grown.

The only thing she hadn't made progress with was her combat training. Despite the fact that she was riddled with bruises she still wasn't able to land a hit on the training robot.

This lack of progress was infuriating but it also drove her to try harder as she began preparing for her next secret night of training. "Ok, so I know 100 way how to not fight with a shield by now." She muttered through a wince as she got into her paladin suit for the second time that day. "Time to find 100 more." She thought as she zipped up the suit then peeked out of her room to make sure the coast was clear. Once she was in the training room and she was sure the coast was clear she pulled her bayard out of storage and activated it for the nearly arm length shield to appear. "Begin training level 1" She announced.

As her luck would have it, Latia wasn't the only one that night that wasn't sleeping. While Shiro understood that training in a safe environment was important for getting the new recruit up to speed, it didn't make him any less anxious. He wasn't fond of the fact that they were still on Eris after they'd only recently been attacked by Sendak. This anxiety left him unable to sleep with nothing better to do than patrol the castle to make sure it was safe as everyone else slept.

Shiro's patrolling eventually lead him to the observation deck of the training room and to his surprise the room was being used.

Tumble. "One more try." Slam. "One more try." Bam. "One more try." Each time she got knocked down Latia would eventually get back up and call for the simulation to restart. Seeing this caused him to wince a few time but he ultimately kept watching, wondering how long they'd been doing this and if they'd eventually succeed.

It took a few attempts even at level one but eventually progress was made. Latia moved to shake out her free arm only for the suit's built-in rectangular light shield to appear in the air. Seeing this surprised her but it also gave her a new idea as she looked between the two shields. "Ok I've tried everything else, let's give this a whirl. One more try" she stated activating the robot again as she shifted from her defensive stance to an openly offensive stance.

This time when the robot attacked she used the smaller light shield that the suit provided to block the attack then quickly punched the sharp end of her bayard's shield forward to be used as a weapon. This ultimately landed her first real hit on the robotic sparring partner. For once it was set skidding back instead of her, even if it managed to stay on its feet.

"Keep it up, you're nearly there!" Shiro mentally cheered as a grin spread across his face when she finally managed to land a hit. He couldn't help but smile further when he figured out her strategy.

Latia's own rejoicing left her open though as the robot returned the favor sending her back though the addition of the new shield allowed for her to control her balance better as it evened her out, letting her stay on her feet. She then bolted forward to deliver another blow to the machine causing it to dissolve into light fragments as the sharp laser point of her shield ripped through the machine.

With the training bot gone Latia allowed herself to slouch and pant for a few seconds to try and catch her breath before she chose to go limp to flop onto the nice cool metal floors. "Ow" she stated in a monotone groan before slowly breaking into a content chuckle and her shields deformed. She did it! On level one but still, she did it!

Seeing Latia fall over after beating the training dummy was concerning, to say the least. Shiro quickly made his way out of the observation deck to go down to the training room to make sure she wasn't seriously injured after the many hits she'd taken at full force.

"When's level two I'll just fight them from here, " She thought to herself still feeling giddy from her first verifiable training success. She could only get better from here. She'd figured out how to fight with a shield. Her thoughts were cut short as she heard the door to the training room open and some rather quick footsteps heading towards her. "Crap think of something" she mentally yelled at herself as she rolled to lay on her stomach and try to push herself back onto her feet but she's already pushed herself to the brink of muscle failure making getting up painful while pushing her shaky legs to stand.

"Let me help you" Shiro stated as he took her hand and helped her to her feet.

"Thanks," Latia replied looking away from embarrassment, had he seen that or did he just walk in thinking she was taking a nap? Her legs were still shaking from the adrenaline drop causing the rest of her to shake as well.

"You're pushing yourself too hard. How long have you been doing this to yourself?" the captain asked as he began to realize this had probably been going on for a while longer then he knew about.

"3 or 4 days?" She replied as she went over it in her head, she started the night she arrived and this was her 3rd full day in the castle so yeah 4 nights of training on her own.

"Wel, you're definitely durable I'll give you that." He replied shaking his head a bit. "You should have asked for help if you did one of us would have told you about the built-in shield and you wouldn't have had to spend so much time getting beat up." He chided with a concerned frown while he continued to allow Latia to use him as a leaning stand as he waited for the shaking to pass or at least lessen enough that he felt like she could walk on her own.

"I didn't want to bother anyone." Latia started to list her excuses only to be cut off.

"You're a part of a team now. So you need to be willing to work with us." Shiro stated in an even tone. He wasn't particularly mad at Latia but he didn't want her to keep doing this if she was just going to keep pushing herself to the point she would fall apart. "Give yourself time. You'll get there. For now, let's just get you back to your room so you can rest." The black paladin added as he moved to see if Latia could stand by herself.

"Right" Latia agreed with a sigh before making her way to the door causing Shiro to raise an eyebrow and follow after.

"You're going to keep training like this aren't you." He eventually asked as they walked.

"Probably" Latia replied honestly with a shrug which surprised Shiro a bit. He was quiet for a few more moment before speaking again.

"I guess that's settled then," Shiro said causing her to stop and look at him a bit confused.

"Hm?" She hummed with a raised eyebrow, sure it was nice of him to respect her decision but it seemed a bit out of place for the guy to just concede like that after everything he'd already said about teamwork and working together with the others.

"I'm going to train with you." He explained though he kept walking without her at a rather slow pace since he knew she was still struggling.

"I'm not going to be able to talk you out of that am I?" She asked once she had caught up with him.

"Probably" He replied with a small smirk.


	3. The White Knight

For the next 2 days, Shiro seemed to be intent on keeping his word. Latia would leave once she thought everyone was asleep and sure enough the paladin would already be there warming up. It had been a rather eventful 2 days on top of that. Since then the castle had taken off and left planet Eris, making it impossible for her to continue practicing piloting her lion. Instead, she'd get some extra combat training with the others since they were on their way to rescue the people of some planet known as Bulmera.

From what Latia could tell Hunk was rather invested in getting there as quick as possible which made her feel a bit guilty that her arrival had delayed them from begin able to help the planet that needed them. The delays didn't stop there either as they ended up having to take the time to answer a distress call that ended up leading to one of the lions being taken and more time being wasted as they had to get it back.

Though once the Blue lion was retrieved it was back to being on track and everyone waiting for Alura to call them to action.

"Paladins we're approaching the Bulmera! Everyone come to the main deck." The Princesses voice rang throughout the castle.

"Well, here we go." Latia thought as she got up from her bed, scratched Disney behind his ear for a few seconds then changed into her suit before making her way to the main deck with her helmet under her arm.

"We'll be arriving at the Bulmera Soon, Liberating these Bulmerians from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy." She heard the princes say as she entered the room finding that the other 5 had already arrived. For now, she simply stood and listened as the others talked.

"So what's the plan? We go in there and just Pow-pow-pow and free the prisoners?" Lance asked with a rather confident smile.

"What was that noise," Keith asked as he looked to lance unimpressed with the sound effects.

"Laser guns" He stated with a goofy grin that only faded as Hunk decided to somewhaKeith's side.

"No lance I think you mean pbew-pbew-pbew nnnnnn chunk PBEW" Hunk stated making his own sound effects that were actually rather impressively accurate causing Latia to smile as the younger members seemed to be getting sidetracked rather easily.

"That sounds like fireworks" Lance stated clearly not as impressed with the laser gun effects.

"Technically they're more like bachu bachu bachu"

"I dunno I'm gonna have to give hunk my vote on this one. That was pretty impressive" Latia stated with a small smirk knowing she couldn't do any better.

"Ok enough with the bad sound effects," Shiro stated as he looked over at the group sounding a bit tired.

"oops… guess I got a bit distracted too" Latia started to think only to have that thought cut short as Shiro spoke up once more.

"besides. It's more like Blam blam blam" He quipped getting a bit more into the acting part of it than the others had. However, his own sound effect seemed to meet the most resistance as the other four chimed in with remarks of 'What' 'no way' 'you're crazy' and 'yeah, wrong' as Latia covered her mouth to try and keep herself from laughing. She'd learned something rather interesting; their captain was just as much a child at heart as the rest of them and seemed to have a good sense of humor at the very least.

"Paladins focus please!" Alura stated picking up the chiding where Shiro had left off causing everyone to get back on track and start thinking about what to do.

"We can't just go in there shooting everywhere, the Bulmera is Alive and from what we've seen it doesn't look very good." Hunk explained causing the others to stare at the screen ahead of them that showed the Bulmera's read out. "After seeing Shey's people enslaved, it made me realize how bad Zarkon really is. And we're the only ones who can stop him."

"Okay, so we can't go into the tunnels guns blazing." Shiro state to confirm that he'd understood what Hunk was saying. "Plan b we figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there" Shiro stated as he crossed his arms. The others seemed to agree with this and quickly built on it from there bringing up ideas and technology that they could use to make the plan work as Latia simply watched. She didn't really know what she could add to the team yet, so she didn't know how to chime in or what to suggest.

"Yeah! OK let's do this. Let's go kick some alien butt!" Hunk cheered as the plan came together and the castle started making it decent. He and the others quickly went off to their Lions and Latia was about to do the same when a Hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Why don't you stay with the princess and Coran for now. You're still not very confident with your piloting and this is going to be a high-stress environment." Shiro stated causing Latia to frown but nod in agreement.

"Right. That's probably for the best. I'll do what I can from here." She replied with thinking 'which is a fat lot of nothing' to herself. Figuring she took that rather well Shiro gave her a quick pat on the back before walking off to get to his lion. Once Shiro was gone she grumbled a bit under her breath as she put her helmet down on a table then walked over to a spare chair waiting for instructions that frankly never came. As Alura and Coran were busy working with the paladins and reading screens of data, Latia was staring out a window only to see some dark ships heading towards them.

"Um, Princess. I think we have a Proble-" She stated only for the castle to quake throwing her from her seat and keeping her from finishing her sentence. Coran and the Princess quickly got back up and to their stations to set up the shields and protect the castle.

"Hey, princess can you come and get us?" Latia heard lance ask over the communicator

"We're Quite occupied at the moment" The princess stated back as she braced herself for further hits from the barrage of enemy fire that was rocking the ship. "We're completely surrounded by Galra ships and we're taking heavy fire." She explained as Latia hurried to pick up her helmet and put it on after staring at the many explosive rounds that were pelting the castle's defensive shields.

"Paladins, you need to get out of there as soon as you can." She ordered over the sounds of warning sirens.

"I can go out and start taking a few out while they work on getting out of the tunnels" Latia offered, figuring that maybe this was what she was meant to do? Be an extra member for when the others were trapped or busy.

"Get it together guys," Latia heard Shiro reply before answering the castle,"Alura, we'll get there as soon as we can, Latia, Stay on the ship. If you go out there by yourself you'll be an easy target"

Latia frowned once more feeling a twitch of a sneer pulling on her face but again he was not wrong. "Understood." She replied once more standing around to do nothing as everyone else did their part.

"They're heading down into the tunnels. They're going to steal the Lions!" Coran shouted as he realized the Galra's plan.

"Paladins the lions are in danger you must get back to them Immediately" Alura ordered which caused Latia to tense up even further, she hated being so useless but she felt that she should still follow orders.

"Princess something's locked onto us," Coran announced causing Latia to glare out the front window.

"Great! What else. What else could possibly make this situation worse!" Latia thought only for the color to drain from her face as she saw a large battleship appear from hyperspace that was easily four times the size of the castle.

"What the Heck is that…" Latia whispered horrified as she started to mentally curse herself for jinxing them.

"Paladins, do you copy? There is a battle cruiser locked on to us." The princess stated which answered Latia's question. "If it fires with its Ion canon… I don't know if we can survive." Alura admitted solemnly which caused the white paladin's fear to skyrocket as she couldn't take her eyes off the massive cruiser.

"We're trying Alura, Shey is pressing her hand against the wall which apparently sends vibrations to the other Rock People who vibrate back, Or something? Hand talking? I guess the answer to your question is Yes we copy" Lance replied in a rather long-winded manner after which the communicators went quiet as they tried to figure out how to get out of their own respective problems.

While Coran and Alura worked with the controls of the castle a reply eventually came through.

"Allura stand by, we're on our way up" Shiro stated causing Latia to let out a small sigh of relief, thinking that perhaps there was still going to be a way out of this mess. "Guys, did everyone make it to their lions in time?" The leader asked over the com system though from what Latia could see from the castle windows all 5 were in formation.

"Come on Shiro, Who do you think you're dealing with? A buncha amateursWOAHA" Lance replied though the sounds of clashing metal could be heard at the end of his question

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Shiro asked in return with a teasing tone.

"No" Lance answered, in turn, sounding rather depressed before the team got to work taking out the multitude of enemy ships.

"It's charging it's Ion canon!" Coran announced snapping the group back into the reality of their situation

"Guys glad your back, but we still need help up here" Latia stated into the mic on her helmet.

"Divert all energy to the bow!" Alura ordered to which Coran obliged, quickly pushing the necessary buttons to try and protect the castle just in the Tick of time. Sure enough, before the shield could be destroyed Voltron was formed and moved the ship so the blast was no longer aimed at the castle. Leaving room for Alura to order a return fire and destroy the Galran warship.

As everyone began to cheer over the com system Latia let out a sigh of relief and slumped into her chair one more. She wasn't going to die just yet.

"Mission accomplished" She heard Keith stated in a similarly relieved tone.

"Just in the tick of time, the castle's defenses are battered and will need to fully recharge." Alura agreed as she got to work on setting up the systems to do just that. The was cut short when a new warning siren alerted to the group to further danger as an unknown object started careening towards the Bulmera's surface and landed with a loud crash.

"oh no," Pidge groaned upon seeing the container.

"Shoulda guessed that wasn't the end of it" Latia stated as she held her forehead

"Please tell me there's not a monster in there, Please tell me it's empty, or full of space candy one of those two, either one of those would be fine" Hunk pleaded showing more signs of fatigue than the rest.

"I don't think it's a piñata hunk" Lance replied to counter the plea.

"if it's the same kind of monster that attacked us on Eris we already know how to beat it." Keith pointed out as he used his bayard to summon Voltron's sword while pidge activated its shield.

"Hold your Ground!" Shiro ordered as Voltron moved to take a more defensive stance while the capsule opened to show a monster covered in eyes that proceeded to fire a Large green laser beam at the team causing Voltron to skid backward. Latia listened to the others talk amongst themselves about what to do leaving Latia once again frustrated that she wasn't helping.

"….to heck with this!" She thought as she got up and snuck out of the control room while Coran and Alura were busy looking between the fight and the many monitors they were working with. By the time she got to her lion and into the cockpit it sounded like the situation wasn't getting any better for them as she could hear them all struggling and bracing for a second hit from the thousand-eyed monster.

"We can't hold out," Lance warned causing Latia to hurry to have her lion take off.

"My Lion's weakening! If the shield sustains structural damage we're done for." Pidge added shortly after as they were pinned back by a third blast.

"Pidge is right" Keith agreed as Latia circled around to the other side of the beast without it noticing since it didn't know to look for a 6th lion.

"Oh, pidge is right! I'm the one that said we can't hold out" Lance began to argue only for Keith to cut him off.

"Lance watch your footing!" Keith warned and sure enough, the shield broke as Voltron fell to the ground and the beast geared up for another attack.

"Surprise!" Latia announced through the communication device and Before the laser beam could be fired Latia had the White lion charge forward and tackle the monster. Her one-time advantage of surprise gave her enough of an opening to knock the thousand-eyed monster's attack off track which was met with an array of cheers of relief.

"Alright team, let's do this!" Shiro Called into the com system again receiving a mixture of cheers as they got back up.

Latia smiled feeling a small sense of pride in the fact that she had been right to go against her orders to stay in the ship. Before she and the white lion could do any further damage to the monster thought, it grabbed onto them before throwing the white lion off to the side and went back to trying attack Voltron who continued to fly around trying to dodge the beams.

"We might need to think of a new plan we still can't afford to take another direct hit!" Pidge reminded as the beast started sending lasers every which direction leaving little place for them to get out of the way as it was gearing up for one of its larger critical attacks.

"Guys watch out!" Latia called as they seemed too busy focusing on dodging the smaller lasers to notice the imminent larger beam about to be fired directly at them. Before she knew it a strange but strong energy started to pull her and the white Lion towards Voltron as it attached to it's back and began to unfold creating a secondary layer of Armor over the titanous Machine. However, As it began unfolding Latia was jettisoned out of the cockpit so the White lion could finish creating a protective layer over Voltron.

Sufficed to say, this is not what Latia had thought would happen, leaving her to let out a shout as she panicked while tumbled through the air making a rather quick descent to the ground. This shouting didn't last for too long before her suit's jetpack kicked in and slowed her spinning fall enough so that she could control where she was going and she was no longer spinning around.

"Latia are you alright!" Pidge asked rather concerned from the shouting.

"I'm fine. I just wasn't prepared to get thrown out like that. Do me a favor? Make sure you don't step on me once I reach the surface ok?" Latia remarked in return as she tried to even out her breathing while angling herself so she'd land as far away from the fight as possible.

Before Latia could get too far the inevitable happened and the Thousand eye's monster's beam crashed directly into Voltron, the shock waves of the blast sent Latia rocketing away much quicker than before and with a weakened jet pack she made her way to the ground rather quickly receiving some minor bruising from the impact.

"Ok Team Voltron, let's do this!" Shiro called as Voltron moved from a defensive stance to a more offensive stance.

"I think my Lion's trying to tell me what to do" Hunk replied before putting his bayard into the slot and turning it causing the sword to deform as a large shoulder cannon to spawn on Voltron instead. Voltron Fired the canon at the same time as the monster let out another comparatively weaker blast since it had less time to charge for this attack. Voltron's canon blast was able to easily push past the thousand-eye monster's attack thanks to the extra energy provided by the white lion and punch straight through the Galra modified creature. As the thousand-eyed creature collapsed to the ground due to its missing torso the team cheered causing Latia to smile as she got up and looked at the mech in the distance.

"What?! No! how can this even be possible." Haggar hissed as she watched her beast fall. "You had the quintessence of an entire planet." She shouted at the screen in her anger with a snarl lingering on her lips. "I must inform lord Zarkon of this development immediately." The druid Grumbled only to stop once she noticed the emperor standing in the doorway.

"There's no need for that Haggar. I've seen enough" he stated before walking over to look at Voltron closer. "So, the Altaians think that having one extra lion is going to stop me. Heh. How quaint." He stated quietly in an amused tone. "For now we'll let them continue to think that they have a secret advantage. This information is not to be shared outside of my head commanders is that understood." Zarkon stated before turning to head back out.

"Clear as a Bulmerian Crystal" Haggar replied with a devious smile.

"Great job guys!" Latia cheered happily with the others as Voltron deformed and the 6 lions landed in a circle. The white paladin tried jumping to get her jet pack to work only to land back on the ground with no success. "Er. So. My jet pack got damaged it seems. And walking back is going to take me a few hours. Is there any chance I could maybe hitch a ride back to my lion?" She asked sheepishly, He'd have to find a way around this for the future. She wouldn't always have the luxury of being in an area where she can just be thrown out of into the open.

"I can go get you" Lance offered all too eagerly causing Latia to cringe internally once more.

"No need I'm already on my way" Shiro stated as his seat slid back putting him into the black Lion's speeder. Once clear of obstacles he took off thinking to spare Latia from Lance's usual flirtatious comments and forward actions. Even on a speeder, it took Shiro a good 10 minutes to get to Latia who was sitting on a rock formation rather bored.

Once Latia noticed the speeder on the horizon she stood up to be more visible and held her arm out giving a thumb's up like a hitchhiker. Once the speeder came to a stop she hurried over it and looked it over trying to find a good place to sit on.

"Thanks for the lift," Latia stated after the protective light screen of the speeder faded away to show the paladin.

"No problem. That was some quick thinking out there, good job" He replied giving a nod and flashing a small smile.

"So does this mean I'm actually on the team now?" Latia asked as she loosely crossed her arms and looked to the leader with a raised eyebrow since she was still a bit miffed that he had her stay behind for the more of the mission.

The question caused Shiro's expression to shift to confusion for a moment before it clicked that he'd been excluding her from fully being a part of the team even if it was unintentional. "I was a bit worried that you still needed more training. But I think you've more than proven yourself. And having the white lion added on to Voltron seems to be a good advantage." He replied which was enough for Latia to accept since it's not like his concerns were completely unfounded.

"I'll keep doing what I can then." She replied as she uncrossed her arms and worked on finding a good place to sit on the outside of the speeder.

"Right well- What are you doing?" Shiro asked as he looked at her confused once more as she tried to situate herself to straddle the propulsion engine on the right side of the speeder.

"Trying to find a place to hitch a ride. There's no way two people are fitting in that pod, at least not comfortably." She pointed out as she tested her grip, sure she could fit if she had to but it's not like she was just going to jump onto the guy's lap.

"That work" He replied with a bit of a chuckle. "Hold on tight, and keep your helmet on so you can let me know if you start slipping." He offered to which Latia nodded and tightened her grip as much as possible before the speeder took off. Before long she was back in her lion and they all made their way back to the castle where Alura was waiting for them outside.

"Great work paladins, I'm afraid our work here isn't quite done, though," Alura replied once the paladins had exited their lions once more and made their way over to her. Hearing this caused the team's collective shoulders to fall thinking they still had more enemies to fight "Coran and I will need to stay here for a few more days to so we can perform the healing ritual on the Bulmera, with any luck breaking it into segments will make it more manageable for our health." She explained which peaked hunk's interest.

"Wait, so there aren't more, scary mutant laser monsters that we have to fight?" He asked looking to Alura with a hopeful expression.

"No Hunk, you're all free to relax for a while but make sure you're vigilant and ready to go if there is another attack," Alura warned Which caused Hunk to smile widely.

"Great! I'm going to go find Shey then" He stated before walking off to find the Rocky lady. Seeing this caused Latia to chuckle to herself as she took off her helmet.

"Well Somebody is smitten." She stated quietly unaware that it was loud enough for Shiro to hear.

"Oh, what makes you think that?" He asked with a smirking smile as he was being somewhat rhetorical. Latia wasn't expecting the question causing her to look to the black paladin with surprise before replying.

"He was making the face. You know, The gushy one that guys make when they're thinking of someone they find attractive" Latia replied as she goofed off a bit by making an exaggerated version of the expression at the black paladin.

"And you have experience with this I take it" He replied giving her a gentle nudge causing her to stumble a few steps away with a chuckle.

"Sorta yeah, I have two brothers, so I've seen them make that face a fair few times as we were growing up." She explained nudging him back though it didn't have similar results as Shiro stayed in place. "I'm the oldest sister so naturally it was my job to tease them relentlessly until they'd end up tackling me. Ah, good times."

"Well, that explains a bit." He stated amused feeling some sympathy for both her brothers and for Latia who'd end up getting attacked for her teasing.

"Pfft, maybe so." Latia agreed, shaking her head a bit. "Luckily we'd pull our punches. Especially now, since my one Brother, Garrett, He's some hot shot MMA fighter now." She stated with a wistful smile as she thought about her family.

"I can see how that might not end well if they didn't" He agreed, figuring that could be destructive to anyone not just siblings if they didn't pull punches.

"Ha, yeah. Sorry, I started rambling there for a bit. I should get my Lion back in the spare hanger." Latia stated figuring that Shiro might be getting bored of talking with her by now.

"I should probably do the same. See you around later." Shiro replied giving a quick wave before jogging off to get back to his lion.


	4. Crystal Clear

Over the course of 3 days, the Bulmera had made a considerable about of progress in recovering its health thanks to the efforts of Alura, Coran, and the resident Bulmerians. Their ever diligent work in performing the rejuvenation ceremony for the mighty beast allowed for new crystals to form across its surface and its body was no longer brittle and fragile.

During this time the paladins spent a bit of time training but the more of their time was spent on their own endeavors. This marked the 4th day of their stay and Pidge was working with her tech projects, Lance was busy butting heads with Keith as they both tried to outdo each other in the training room and Hunk was enjoying as much time with Shey as he could.

Meanwhile, Latia was more set than ever on figuring out how to pilot her lion. Their time on the Bulmera was coming to a close and she wanted to get in as much 'safe' piloting practice as she could before they'd have to take off. So, while the other relaxed around the ship she was busy making her way through the various halls of the castle to the spare hanger that was housing her Lion.

Once she was standing about 30 or so feet in front of it, she looked up at it with a childish smile. "Ok then, so, you're sort of alive right?" She asked the lion getting no response. She frowned a bit but continued to talk aloud anyways "What do you say to a practice run then, you and me." She offered and sure enough, the lion gave a shake as it stirred to life before letting out a roar and lowered its head to open its mouth and make an entrance ramp.

With the ramp set up for her, Latia's smile returned as she put her helmet on and hurried over to the lion then got into her seat. "I'll take that as a yes," She stated as she pushed a few buttons one of which opened the hanger's large exit. "So I guess I should think of a name for you huh." She stated knowing that she was more or less talking to herself even if the machine was sentient. "How about Blache? Roar for yes, Stay quiet for you don't really care and toss me out for no." She offered with a curious tone as she tightly closed her eyes while silently praying that she wouldn't be ejected. To her surprise, she felt the jostle of the white lion letting out another roar which caused her to laugh, "Ok then Blanche it is."

Once the door was completely opened she grabbed on to the controls, adjusted her hold a bit then pressed both levers forward causing the white lion to very quickly run out of the castle. It then took off at full speed as she gave a few hoots and hollers in her excitement. "Ok let's see what we can do," Latia stated with a childish grin on her face as she tried a few maneuvers since she was starting to get comfortable with piloting.

"You know I never took you for the adrenaline junky kinda person," Said a laughing voice over the communication system. Hearing Shiro's comment caused Latia's expression to quickly contort to one of embarrassment and dread. She had thought she was alone.

"Sorry about shouting in your ear like that. I didn't realize you were out here too." She apologized making a mental note to ask Pidge where the mute button was later.

"I was just doing a perimeter check. Don't worry about it, I'm getting used to it because of Lance and Keith" He joked though it only made Latia feel more embarrassed. "It's good to see that you're starting to get the hang of piloting your lion, though."

"Thanks, that's actually why I came out here, I wanted to get in as much practice as I can before we have to head off to the next distress call," Latia explained as she shifted her controls to have her lion coast to a stop for the time being.

"I see. Well, if you're looking to practice, Why don't we have a race? The Bulmera has a lot of different formations close to the ground, so if we agree to not fly over them it can make for an interesting challenge." Shiro suggested though Latia took the offer as him joking around.

"A race huh? Heh, so what do I get if I win?" She asked in her attempt to joke back, the last time someone had suggested a race to her was back on the playground when she was a kindergarten tot.

"I just figured it would be good practice. But I guess if you're feeling confident enough add a wager to it that's fine by me." Shiro replied which caused Latia to slowly realize her mistake. "Winner does the losers chose for a week?" He suggested which caused her to go pale. Great either she was going to look like a huge snobby wuss by back peddling on her suggestion or she was going to look like an overconfident dork, Crash, lose, and end up doing double chores for a week.

"Fine by me," Latia replied, figuring it was better to try and stick with the over confidence she accidently implied. Her silent hoping that he was still joking faded away as she saw him maneuver the black lion to be closer to the surface.

"Ok then, we can start here," Shiro suggested as Latia piloted her lion down by his and silently observed all the different wave-like cliffs and overhangs in front of them. "First one to reach that large crystal in the distance wins?" He added after as he sent a marker to her lion's display.

"Right, on the count of 3?" Latia agreed after shaking her head. She needed to snap out of this. She still had a chance right? The black lion was much bigger, so maybe her smaller lion would be able to handle the obstacles better? She wasn't sure if that was the case or not but that didn't stop her from putting all her chips on that hope.

"1" Shiro started.

"2" Latia continued waiting for the signal.

"3!" Shiro called and with that they were both off, winding, swerving and weaving through the different formations of the Bulmeria's hardened outer shell. Latia managed to generally do well with avoiding crashing her Lion into anything. Until she got a bit too cocky and ended up clipping the black lion, causing it to fall behind and inadvertently allowing her to take the lead.

"Crap, Sorry!" Latia called back through the communication system though that didn't exactly stop her from continuing to make her way to the finish line. If she could get out of chores for a week out of a happy accident she'd take it.

"So it's that kind of race huh?" Shiro asked. It was the then that Latia knew. She done goofed. Before she could get another word in the black lion pounced, landing on the white lion and causing the two mechs to tumble toward the finish lined.

As the mechanical beasts slowed to a stop Latia let out a sigh of relief only to be jettisoned from her seat and into the air about as gracefully as a dyslexic goose that had somehow gotten drunk.

Once she realized what was going on Latia had her jet pack activate hoping to soften the blow as much as possible before tumbling across the ground. she had wanted to practice the whole getting ejected thing too at some point but this was not really what she had in mind. As Latia got up she looked from the lions to the crystal and knowing it would be too late by the time she got back to hers. Instead, the white paladin opted to run the last bit on her own two feet trying to formulate some sort of plan as she ran and the black lion got back up.

"Now what are you doing," The black paladin asked confused as he had his lion quickly pass Latia and the crystal stone that they'd designated as their finish line. She didn't actually think she could outrun him did she?

"I win" Latia stated out of breath as she pressed her hand against the Bulmerian crystal and looked up at the black lion. "I'm the first pilot to make it to the crystal." She added as she was mentally split on whether she should be mortified by her childishness with this simple race or pat herself on the back for finding a loophole.

"That's cheating." Shiro counted with a surprised and mildly frustrated tone as he had the black lion land.

"Is it?" Latia genuinely asked, She was not really willing to argue with him on the matter but she really couldn't tell when he was joking. A sigh could be heard over the communication system before Shiro spoke again.

"Let's just go with it's a draw." He offered with a short chuckle.

"Oh thank heavens, I really didn't want to have to do your chores. I wouldn't have enough hours in the day." Latia admitted as she allowed her shoulders to dropped from relief. "And I am sorry I clipped you, I didn't mean to do that. It looks like I still have some practicing to do." She added since she still felt some guilt for that.

"I know you didn't mean to, don't worry about it," Shiro assured with an amused smile as Latia stared up at the black lion with a confused expression.

"Wait. Then why'd you? But if." She tried to ask though she found herself tripping over her own words as she tried to figure out what she wanted to ask.

"I didn't want to have to do your chores either. I didn't think you'd go for that deal," He explained as he also began to relax.

"I suggested it because I thought you were joking about racing in the first place," Latia finally admitted as her face burned a bright red though she felt a bit lighter from telling the truth.

The two were silent for a bit before Latia broke the silence as she tried to muffle her laughing causing Shiro to snicker as well. "I don't think it's a good idea for us to bet with each other anymore" Latia suggested through her giggle fit as she allowed herself to lean her back against the large crystal so she could rest.

"Agreed" Shiro replied having already gotten his laughing under control but he was still smiling. "Let's get back to the castle, Alura and Coran should be back soon. I wouldn't be surprised if they want to take off as soon as possible." The black paladin suggested in return.

"Right," Latia agreed as an idea came to mind that caused her to smirk to herself. "Race you back?" She offered only to feel a gust of strong winds whip around her as the black lion took off towards the castle.

"Fine by me" She heard through her helmet's speaker as she watched the black lion quickly shrink into the distance.

"Hey, now that's cheating!" Latia called before running back to her lion, she knew she wouldn't be able to catch up at this rate but it was fun all the same. By the time Latia had made it back to the castle and changed into her earth clothing, Coran and Princess Alura had returned. Latia gave a quiet wave in greeting as the two walked past her.

"Let's get you back to your room princess, you should rest." Coran stated gently as he helped steady Alura so she could walk while he used his free hand to wave back.

"I'm fine Coran, we still need to take off, and there's so much more work to do." She countered thought she knew she was very weak.

"I'll worry about that so you can work on getting well again. The rejuvenation ceremony took a lot out of you even breaking it up like that." The advisor replied hoping that his offer to oversee the castle while she rested would help her take the time she needed to heal.

"Very well…" Alura finally agreed which caused Latia to smile as she continued on her way. It was heartwarming to see how well those two got along. Latia continued meandering around the castle, bracing herself as it took off before looking out a small window and giving a half-hearted sigh.

She didn't mind being in space, but she was getting homesick. Her family probably noticed she's gone by now. And she'd probably been fired from her job. She'd been away for what, a week and a half by now? The police had probably moved her to the cold case file. The thought of her parents trying to find her and the chance of them wasting their money on hiring people to look for her made her feel sick to her stomach. Latia was quickly pulled from these thoughts as she heard Coran's voice over the intercom.

"Everyone please come down to the detainment room" Coran announced causing Latia to lightly shake her head and pull herself back to reality. She started walking back the way she came when what was said finally hit her.

"Wait… detainment room? Does this castle have some sort of dungeon in it?" She thought, feeling a mixture of concern and amusement by the idea of the castle ship having such a medieval feature to it. After a few wrong turn and backtracking once or twice Latia finally made it to the detainment room to find the group standing with Coran in front of one of the many tube-like chambers. As Latia approached she curiously craned her neck to try and see what was inside only stare at the armored purple man beast with a mix of fear and confusion. "What is that?"

"This is Sendax, he's a General for the Galra. A nasty one at that" Coran explained as he began attaching devices onto the glassy exterior.

"So this is what a Galra looks like." Latia thought having never actually seen one before. It was strange having a face to put to the name now.

"There we go, Sendax is all hooked up now, though I feel I should warn you this technology was used to keep Altaian memories alive, not to interrogate prisoners," Coran stated hesitantly as he turned on the memory transferring device

"Coran, We understand this isn't what the technology was meant for. But if we can extract Sendax's memories we might gain valuable intelligence on Zarkon's troop locations" Shiro replied in a matter of fact tone as he felt on edge being in the same area as the Galra general.

"Yeah and then we can be like 'knock knock' who's there 'the avenging fury of Voltron son!' " Lance added enthusiastically.

"When you transfer someone's memories like this. What happens to the body?" Latia asked as she began to feel uneasy about what was occurring. Extracting and transferring were not the same as copying and she understood that well enough to know there had to be consequences with it.

"It's best not to think about that," Coran advised looking to Latia with some amount of sympathy.

"Fascinating, so how exactly does this work?" Pidge asked unphased by the idea that at best Sendax would have lost all his memories, or become a living vegetable. Coran went on to explain the system further, resulting in some nonsensical squabbling between Keith and Lance per the usual. Eventually, one by one the members started to leave the area since nothing was really happening.

Keith and Pidge had left by the time that Latia had thought to do the same. "I need to go and check on Disney, page me if you guys need me," Latia replied before walking away. She was grateful to finally be able to leave that place it gave her the creeps. Sure this was a war and there were costs with that but it didn't mean she wanted to watch some guy get their memories forcefully pulled onto a giant glass equivalent of a USB drive.

Latia let out a disheartened sigh as she opened the door to her room, only to smile as she found Disney sitting waiting for her at the door with his tail happily wagging behind him. "Hey, fluffy butt how are you doing" She stated as she kneeled down to pet the fluffy dog before getting back up to walk into the room and start her routine for taking care of the pup. After an hour or so of playing fetch, tug of war and generally just relaxing in the small room she figured a walk around the castle would do the young dog some good. Latia walked over to her door causing it to open before whistling to signal Disney to follow. They didn't get very far on their walk when Disney started to bristle and growl as they hunch their shoulders and slowly stalked forward.

"What's wrong bud?" She asked as she looked around but found nothing to be out of place. Disney however, took off running before Latia could call him back. "Not this again, Disney wait!" Latia called as she chased after the dog. As she followed after she realized that the path was very familiar and eventually found Disney barking at the entrance to the detainment room. "Disney hush." She whispered as she could hear talking from behind the door, while it was quiet and muffled she could still make it out.

"I know you have all the answers. Give them to me." Shiro said in a tone that was darker than usual. Latia waited in silence to try and overhear who he was talking to only to jolt from surprise as she heard him give an agitated shout. "You're a broken soldier, you can't hold out forever," He said as his tone became somewhat more aggressive. This was enough for Latia to put the pieces together that Shiro was talking to the imprisoned general.

"But, he looked comatose how is Shiro talking to them," She thought before letting it go to focus on listening once more. She shouldn't be spying on the guy like this but something weird was going on and she wanted to find out what it was.

'What was the first rank you held in Zarkon's army,' 'Where did you find the red lion,' 'What is Zarkon's greatest weakness'? the questioning continued but no matter how hard she strained her ears she never heard any sort of replying. As the one-sided interrogation continued on it was becoming clearer that Shiro was becoming more and more distressed.

"No, I'm not like you" "That's not me" "I'm not listening to you" "Stop it!"

The sound of cracking glass was the last straw as Laita hurried over to the door letting both her and Disney through to find the panicking leader with his mechanical fist pressed against the broken glass of the container. His already pained and fearful expression contorted further before he practically fell forward to eject the comatose general from the ship.

"Are you ok?" Latia worriedly asked as she and Disney hurried over.

"I had to get him out of here, I was hearing his voice, he can't be trusted on this ship" Shiro replied not answering the question directly but seeing him get up to put his back to the wall was enough for Latia to gather that he was not ok.

"You did what you thought was right" She replied in a quiet voice recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack choosing to step back a bit to give him more space since he was cornering himself.

"He's gone now. How about we sit down and take a few deep breaths." She offered, trying to keep her voice as calm and even as possible as she struggled with not knowing what else to do to help him. she didn't want to tell him it was ok. she didn't know how much of what was going on was in his head and his imagination could quickly make a liar out of her.

"Have you had anything to eat recently?" Latia eventually asked after allowing some time of silence to pass as Disney leaned into her leg.

"No" Shiro replied shortly as he moved to hold his the side of his face in his hand.

"Why don't we go to the kitchen then and get you some food..." She offered thinking that maybe getting him away from the area that was stressing him out would help.

"I don't recommend that the kitchen is on the fritz" Hunk stated as he and the others made their way over as well.

"Yeah more like the Whole castle is out to freaking kill us. It tried to kill me twice!" Lance shouted which caused Latia to wince.

Before Lance could continue the sounds of the warning alarm filled the air causing everyone to look at the bright red monitor that announced that the situation had gone from bad to worse.

"What, how is that possible?"Coran asked quietly "The ship is starting a wormhole jump" Coran stated in a frightened tone. Fearing the worst the group hurried up to the main controls to find Alura standing at the helm and driving the ship through the wormhole.

"Alura, What's going on?" Shiro demanded having not completely recovered from his panic attack.

"We're going to Altaya. We're going home. My father is taking us" The princess replied as she calmly looked back to the others.

"Oh 'foop' to the 'hell' to the 'no'." Latia thought as she started to loose her cool, it wasn't like the princess to act like this she seemed possessed!

This answer did not sit will with rest of the gang either as they quickly tried to rush over and stop Alura. A defensive barrier quickly appeared to block them from her as 3 large screens showed the face of a bearded man with white hair.

"Stay away from my daughter!" they demanded causing Latia to stare in disbelief.

"Alura, Wake up" Shiro called trying to jar the woman from her trance.

"The crystal must have corrupted King Alfor's artificial intelligence, it's taking over!" Coran explained putting a name to the face for Latia as the ship finished traveling through the wormhole, placing them in front of a dark red star.

"That star is about to explode!" Pidge stated fearfully as the ship continued on it's path to its fiery grave.

"Alura, Alura! Wake up! What you're seeing isn't real" Coran called as he got as close to the barriers possible. The cries seemed to be in vain as Allura's hallucination continued and she proceeded to act as if she was picking flowers. Coran's continued pleading eventually got Alura to question the validity of what she was seeing enough for her to wake from her dreaming state.

"That's not Altaya" She finally stated as she came to her senses feeling the same dread as the others as she looked into the massive star.

"When that star goes supernova it will be enough to wipe out the entire system. Alura you must reset the course and get us out of here." Pidge pleaded. Once she understood the severity of their situation Alura hurried to the controls to try and reset the course only to be thrown away from the panels and out of the barrier.

"Father I beg you to turn this ship around. If you don't we will all parish" Alura begged as the others watched feeling powerless.

"I know, that is my intention" The king stated gravely sending chills down Latia's spine as she feared for her life.

"What? Why?!" Alura cried out in a mixture of anguish and confusion.

"Don't you see dear daughter, Zarkon can never be defeated. He's been ruling for 10,000 years."

"But we must continue to fight!" She countered still torn from grief over what was happening. The two continued to argue before her father's image disappeared and Alura turned to face the paladins. "I've got to get into the AI chamber to disconnect my father's power source manually." She stated, having made the difficult decision on what she must do.

"Paladins get to your lions, I need you to slow the castles descent into the star." She ordered as she walked past to start making her way to the chamber. This was not exactly what Latia had in mind but if they were going out there, she should too. The 6 rushed to their respective lions and had them press against the ship to slow the descent as much as possible.

"It's getting a bit hot out here" Pidge called as everyone had begun sweating due to the heat of the star. Before long Alura appeared on all of their screens.

"Paladins, get back to your hangers. We're getting out of here." Alura announced much to the joy of the paladins. Everyone quickly got back into their hangers and before they knew it they were back into the wormhole away from the destructive forces of the star.

Once everyone had made it back to the main control room they found Alura sitting with Coran. "I'm so sorry about your father princess," Shiro stated as he walked over and sat next to her to put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"We all are," Hunk added as the rest of the group moved to stand around her.

"Thank you… but that was not my father. The real King Alfor was a great man, And a great father." Alura replied though some sadness could still be heard in her voice. "He may not be here with us anymore but his dream lives on in all of us and his legacy is Voltron." She added giving her a strong eulogy for her now completely departed father. "If you'll excuse me a moment. I have other business to attend to." She finished as she rather briskly left the room. The others stood, wondering what to do for the hurting woman and Latia let out a soft sigh.

"Well, you guys heard her. There's work to do." Latia stated before heading out as well and back to her room to get out of her suit. Once she'd finished changing she made her way to the kitchen only to grimace upon finding it covered in green goop. "Dang it all guys," Latia grumbled through a sigh as she scratched at the back of her head. She stared at the mess a moment longer before finding a rag and getting to work on cleaning up the mess, figuring that her meal could wait a bit longer for her to clean this up.

Coran was probably too busy comforting Alura to worry about something as comparatively trivial as a messy kitchen. She'd just about finished cleaning the floors when somewhat familiar footstep made their way to the kitchen and paused a moment. Latia looked over to the entrance to see Shiro silently walk over to the device that held the hydration packs. He didn't exactly acknowledge her being there so she wasn't sure if she should just let him be or if she should say something. In the end, she decided to leave him be and focus on cleaning.

"Hey, Latia," He eventually started causing the white paladin to turn and looked at him curiously."About what happened back at the detainment room. I'm sorry you and the others had to see me like that." Shiro stated as he rubbed the back of his neck with his mechanical arm.

"You don't need to apologize" Latia replied as she shifted to stand and thought for a moment longer on what to say. "Look, I don't know you that well. I don't know your life or what you've had to go through." She added as she continued to try and pick her words carefully. "What I do know, is that your name is Shiro, you're an amazing pilot that everyone here looks up to. While you're serious you still like to goof off every once in a while and can even have a bit of a childish streak. You care about everyone and you try to do what's right." She listed off inadvertently getting side tracked as she tried to list off positive aspects about him.

"I've forgotten where I was going with all that but, just, try and not be too hard on yourself." She finished giving similar advice to him to what he'd given her before about training.

Shiro looked to Latia stunned for a few moments and left at a loss for what to say."Thanks." he eventually replied with a relaxed smile.

"It's no problem," Latia said in a gentle tone before going back to her Food goo removal project.

"Would you like a hand with the cleaning" Shiro offered curiously which caused Latia to smile.

"I'd appreciate that." She replied before going to look for a spare rag for her friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> before I wrap this up, I feel like I need to address this. there was a point with the story that I could have used to write a "cute" scene between Latia and Shiro where he was freaking out by having her be more forward with comforting him. I ultimately decided against this because that's probably one of the worst things you can do to someone you barely know that's going through a PTSD induced panic attack. Sure for some people physical contact like hugs do help but that really only is the case with people they know and trust. however, I didn't feel it would be proper for me to abuse the mental situation of a character like that just for the sake of a few 'Awww' and giggling gushing.
> 
> If you end up being around someone that is going through a panic attack the best thing is to give them space. If they invite you or ask for you to hold them and you feel comfortable doing so, then go for it. Otherwise, respect their boundaries, talk to them if they want to talk, don't force them to say or do anything, don't bombard them with stories of you and your life and how everything is going to be ok. Don't try and be the one that 'fixes them' or 'saves them'. Just be patient.
> 
> so yeah with that PSA out of the way, this chapter wasn't as "cute" but I feel like it was best to go with what a more realistic way to deal with someone having a panic attack and it made for a more sincere character bonding moment later on because I felt it was important to include this part of Shiro's character.


	5. Impulsive Nature

2 more weeks had passed since their incident with the corrupted king Alfor. Alura was starting to act like herself again and the others continued training how they could between their various periods of downtime, in order to be prepared for their next battle.

Latia had even begun to feel more comfortable with being more open about her extra training time as she grew closer to the ragtag group of heroes. She wasn't worried about others seeing her fail now since she accepted that they wanted her to succeed.

She was currently training on her own while listening to music from her phone thanks to a small device that Pidge had made for her that would allow her to charge earth devices. The white paladin quietly hummed along as she moved to dodge the Gladiators attack then retaliate with her own which sliced through the large machine.

"Yes!" She happily cried as she threw her arms in the air as the machine dissolved into the air. "Level 2 down!" She thought while wiping away a few beads of sweat from her face onto her shirt.

As the music continued to play she happily danced over to her phone on the tips of her toes in a cross step-like manner. "Right over left, extend left, right behind left, extend left," she thought over the motion to keep from tripping while remaining unaware that another member had entered the room who had planned to train when she finished.

As she neared the small melodic device she decided to throw in a few spins by quickly making a half turn with each step.

Step, turn, step, turn "Man, I can't believe I finally did it!" Latia thought still elated with her progress.

Step, turn, step turn "Wait, was that Shiro," She thought mortified but made one more rotation to check.

Step, turn, Step turn "Crap it is him" Step, turn, she stopped her spinning so she was facing the door where the black paladin had been standing while she reached down to grab her phone and turn the music off.

"If you're able to dance around after beating the gladiator, I don't think you're training on the right level." He commented with a joking smile as he walks over.

Latia's face pinkened from embarrassment upon hearing the comment but she tried joking back. "Hey, I just barely got past level 2. If I try anything higher I'll end up being thrown into a wall again." She replied as she defended herself from the mock accusation of complacency. "Besides, that was an easy cross step, anyone can do that" She added while repeating the previous steps for a few second.

Shiro continued to joke around as he tried to copy the steps from before but it ended up being fairly clunky. "Maybe if you don't have two left feet."

Latia chuckled and shook her head as she restarted the song from before and put the phone down back down. "It's easier if you pick up your heels a little bit." She replied once she'd moved to stand next to him so she could go over steps again but slower. Right over left, extend left, right behind left, extend left.

Shiro accepted the impromptu lesson and tried again but seemed to be having trouble as he tried to copy how Latia had been walking on the tips of her toes as much as possible. Seeing this caused her to look to the leader a bit concerned.

"You don't have you pick up your heels that much, I just do that to make up for the fact that I'm usually much shorter than my dance partners," Latia explained resulting in a sigh of relief from her fellow paladin as he moved to lower himself back to the ground. As his heels made it back to the ground he lost track of his steps causing him to trip over his own foot for a moment and push into Latia before catching himself with an embarrassed smile.

"Case and point" Latia chuckles and nudges back by pushing into the side of his arm with the flat of her shoulder.

"I think the bigger problem is that I don't dance." He pointed out while raising his eyebrow at her silly antics.

"You were close, maybe give it one more try." She offered, causing Shiro to give a short chuckle before he tried once more. This time Latia was able to stay out of the way as she moved quicker and Shiro seems to catch on.

"See you got it," Latia remarked as she kept an eye on his footwork to make sure he wouldn't end up stepping on her.

"I'll have to try that next time I beat a training dummy," He said as he stopped, while it was admittedly kinda fun it, seemed to be a pointless thing for him to know how to do.

"Hey, that's my victory dance back off," Latia replied with a smirk as she also stopped. It was pretty easy for her to tell that he was done with the unintentional lesson "Anyways it'll be useful if you ever have to go to some fancy event since it works as a waltz. You just do the same thing while facing your partner but you move to make a circle rather than a straight line."

Lance peaked over Shiro's shoulder having entered unnoticed similarly to how Shiro had earlier. "psst this is when you say 'my lady may I have this dance' "

Hearing this caused the white paladin to roll her eyes as she continued to smirk. An idea quickly brewed in her mind which resulted in her snatching Lance and pushing him to dance around instead "But of course gallant sir how kind of you to so boldly offer" She said in an overly theatrical manner to match how Lance had been whispering moments earlier.

"Whoa, ah! Shiro! Shiro, help! I'm being attacked by a mad woman," Lance called out as he stumbles over his feet since Latia refused to give him any sort of pointer or instruction as they moved around the room.

Latia didn't torment to poor teen for too long, though, as she stopped rather shortly after she heard his pleas for help. "This it why you don't volunteer other people to do something you wouldn't do first." She said with a chuckle. With her hostage released she walked over to her phone to turn off the music before giving a casual wave. "See you guys around."

It turned out she'd be seeing one of them sooner than she'd thought. That night Shiro was patrolling around the ship as he usually did when he couldn't sleep. He'd thought to check in the training room only to stop as he saw Latia quietly sneak past in the intersecting hallway which happened to lead to the spare hanger.

"What is she up to now." He thought as her somewhat suspicious route left him concerned. Sure she'd gotten better with piloting even in open space but she should be off on her own like that when they weren't sure when they'd have to answer a distress call.

His concern led him to trail after her and sure enough, he followed her to the spare hanger where she boarded the white lion. Shiro quickly ducked behind a few storage crates and was about to hurry over to the white lion's entrance ramp when footsteps coming from the white lion caused him to stay in his hiding place.

"How did you even get on there, you need to wait here." He could hear her chide as 4 small paws could be heard clicking against the metallic floor. Once he was sure Latia had left he hurried over to the white lion and looked around the cockpit to see if there were any clues of sorts to point to what she was doing.

"Guess I'll just have to ask." he figured as he found nothing out of the ordinary. As he exited the small room the white lion let out a roar and threw it's head back tossing Shiro into the speeder bay of the lion and the door shut tightly after. The black paladin let out a grunt as he was thrown into an unusual soft pile. He moved to get up but stopped as he heard Latia speak while entering the lion to go to the cockpit.

"Yeah, I know Blanche, I'm anxious to get going too. Come on. We don't have much time." her muffled voice rang through the metallic walls before the sound of the hanger door could be heard opening.

As the lion took off he took the time to observe his surroundings a bit better to find that he'd landed on a few large sacks of flour and rice. The rest of the bay was filled with other similar earthly supplies, powdered egg, powdered milk, fertilizer, soil seeds, canned fruits and vegetables, clothing in various sizes, medication, bandages, boxes of assorted parts wires and electrics just to list a few of the clustered items.

"Ok. So she's not just taking laps around the ship…" he thought and only a few moment later he felt the lion land causing him to bump around a bit more. His growing hunch caused him to frown but he wanted to be sure. He stayed quiet as he heard Latia move around the lion and waited until he didn't hear footsteps for a good 5 minutes before exiting the speeder bay.

Sure enough, Latia had left and in the cockpit, her suit rested in her chair with her armor though the upper leg plate that stored her bayard was missing. Shiro shook his head in disbelief as he brought up their coordinate to find that she had indeed been sneaking back to earth, where it was currently Midday, without telling anyone.

She was definitely going to be getting a lecture once he found her. With that in mind he went back to the speeder bay and started up the tracking map before putting in a few strings of numbers for Latia's suit and one piece was rather quickly moving away from the area. "Good so that works," he said with a nod before he worked on moving some of the supplies out of the way so he could get the speeder out in the first place. That took longer than he'd wanted since the wasted time gave him a fair amount of ground to have to catch up on.

His tracking eventually led to a warehouse-like building with a sign out front that labeled it as some sort of gym. While he parked he noticed that Latia had only just arrived as well, dressed in workout clothes and her one piece of armor over her upper left leg to keep her bayard with her.

The sound of the familiar speeder caused her to stop walking and look back only to pale upon sees Shiro exit the small craft. "Oh, I am so busted…. How did he even know I was leaving? I was just as quiet as the last 2 nights." Latia thought with a panicked expression thought comments of the others pulled her back to reality.

'Da heck is that', 'some rich punk? I mean who wears all black and has the money to upkeep a hairstyle like that.' 'probably, I ain't seen anythin' like that car before neither.' 'who's he waving to. Do You know him?' 'nah. you?' 'nope'

Hearing them confirmed that this was not going to end well but she needed to sort this out and quickly. She could hear the commentators continue to gab as she walked over. Comments of 'oooh snap' 'daaaang' and 'wait lala knows them oooh this is gonna be good.' caused her to worry more as the commentators quickly left to go further into the gym. "Ok I have 5 minutes to fix this, tops." she thought as her panicking continued.

"H-hey, funny seeing you here." Latia greeted sheepishly once she made it over to Shiro who simply looked down at her with a stern expression as he crossed his arms.

"This isn't funny Latia." He chided with a disappointed sigh. "You could have at least told someone you were leaving what would have happened if you crashed, what if we had to warp away and we didn't know you were gone." He pointed out as the list of things that very well could go wrong with her taking trips like this grew."What if Zarkon notices that there are wormholes showing up frequently around the earth it could make him target it to draw us out. He can't know that we're from here." he stated giving what he felt was the worst of the scenarios on the list.

"I… didn't consider that," she admitted guiltily as she avoided eye contact. " I wasn't planning on doing this often, this was the last trip I was going to make. I swear." She replied as she rubbed her one arm as the cold winter air was starting to get to her. "I just-" Latia was about to continue only for a loud booming voice to cut her off.

"OY! Lala Land! Get your sorry arse over here" barked a rather tall man that appeared to be in his early 30s with shaggy straight black hair that reached a bit past his chin though it was pulled back so only his bangs were free.

Hearing this caused Latia to look between Shiro and the man with a slightly worried expression. "Right! Coming!" she called back, giving a parting apologetic look to Shiro before jogging over.

Her actions left Shiro to watch with one eyebrow raised. This was strange, to say the least, and something about this new guy was rubbing him the wrong way. He continued to observe figuring she was going to talk with them then come back since they needed to get back to the castle.

This turned out to be incorrect. As the others that had been standing by the man left, Shiro concern spiked upon seeing Latia grabbed by the ear and pulled closer to the man so he could talk to her without being overheard.

This was a huge red flag causing the leader to quickly move to intervene. "Hey," Shiro called as he pushed the man away so he could stand between him and Latia " I don't know who you think you are but no one treats a member of my crew like that" Shiro warned as he stared down the man that was only a few inches shorter than he was.

The man stumbled back a few steps but rather quickly regained his footing before crossing his arms and glaring back. "Name's Garret, D' we got a problem?" Garret asked in a threatening manner, daring Shiro to say yes.

"Nope! Noooo, no problems here" Latia stated quickly before anyone else could answer "Where are my manners I should introduce you, this is" Latia said as she moved to stand between the two hoping that her attempts to introduce them would fix the situation she was trying to avoid.

"Takashi Shirogane I know" Garret replied cutting off Latia from continuing the introductions. "The guy was on track to be the next Neil Armstrong then died in space on the Kerberos mission a little over a year ago …supposedly… How could I not know who he is? Serious lala even I watch the news." the rather macho man replied gruffly which surprised Latia who looked back to Shiro.

"What the. Ok, I'm questioning you later mister. Why didn't he correct me before when I said his name was Shiro." She thought as she noticed that Shiro seemed to still be rather tense and continued to stare down Garret.

"Oh, well. Um. Shiro, this is my older brother, Garret. He's an MMA fighter." Latia stated which surprised Shiro enough for his staring to be replaced with a shocked expression. "He can be a bit rough around the edges and doesn't really understand personal space, but he means well." She explained only for Garret to hook her with his arm and pull her in to give her a noogie.

"What was that ya brat," Garret asked in an agitated tone though he was clearly smirking and just playing around in his own way.

"Dang it Garret, this is exactly what I meant," Latia Replied embarrassed as she tried to push him away.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Garret replied as he let his sister go so she could take a few steps away and fix her messed up hair. "So, this guy disappears for a year then shows up again with my sister that's been missing for weeks. And I'm just supposed to be ok with that?" Garret asked as he shifted to a more serious disposition. He looked to Latia before gesturing with his head that she should leave."go do some reps."

Latia simply stared with an accusatory glare in response and remained unmoved.

"Da heck is that look suppose to be? I'll be good. Now go before I punt you over there." Garret promised, causing Latia to let out an exasperated sigh before doing what she was told. Once she'd left Shiro spoke up once more.

"So, you're siblings?" Shiro asked still a bit confused since the two didn't really look alike and there seemed to be a noticeable age gap.

"Yeah, half siblings. Pops remarried. Mom was a real peach though, never treated me different or nothin' even after Lala and the others came along." Garret explained as he motioned for Shiro to enter the building so the didn't have to leave the door open for the cold to get in.

"I take it you're the one that lit the damn fire under her arse eh?" Garret asked in return as they walked around the facility.

"I'm not sure how to answer that," Shiro replied with a confused expression, he wasn't really comfortable with the situation that he'd been dragged into and it didn't seem to be getting any less weird.

"Lala's a good kid, she never liked going to see my matches on account that I'd get pretty bloodied up. Surprised me when she showed up out of nowhere to ask for fight'n tips." Garret replied as he thought back on the few times she did go with and chuckled to himself. "so If I have anything t' go off I'm willing to bet you have something to do with that"

"She's been leaving to get help." Shiro realized before giving a sigh. He understood a bit better now. It didn't mean she wasn't in the wrong but he at least understood why she'd thought to come back. This realization helped him relax. "She's a surprising person and seems to learn pretty quickly." He agreed, shaking his head as he thought over the good month or so that Latia had been working with them.

"Yeah," he replied quietly while giving Shiro a suspicious stare. "So what's this whole Cybernetics stuff about anyways. From the looks of it, they're trying to make some sorta real life Iron man." Garret stated as he gestured to Shiro's Galra tech arm "can you shoot laser beams with that hunka hardware." He asked jokingly since he didn't realize that it was a prosthetic.

"Garret," Latia stated in a warning tone as she walked over to the two though she was now in her normal day clothes though she still had her piece of leg armor on over her jeans.

"You heading out already? You just got here." Garret pointed out with a confused frown.

"Yeah, well. Shiro was just stopping by and letting me know I need to get back. no more visits" She explained which wasn't too far from the truth. "We should get going." Latia offered as she looked to Shiro.

"Right." Shiro agreed as he was more than willing to get away from the nosey gruff man. Latia waved and gave a parting hug to the large bear of a man before heading over to the speeder with Shiro.

"If you want, you can take the speeder back to the white lion and wait there. I have a few other things I want to take care of before heading back." Latia offered since she did still want to finish the last of what she'd set out to do.

"No, you're not supposed to be here in the first place. We're heading back to the ship, they can't form Voltron if I'm not there" Shiro countered as they stopped in front of the futuristic transportation device.

Latia humed before letting out a sigh. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this, if I'd know that you were on board I wouldn't have left." She replied sincerely but still determined all the same.

"It probably looks like I've been doing this for more selfish reasons like seeing my family." She started before looking to the gym then back,"Ok so, I did start visiting my brother too, That was selfish of me I'll admit that." She added wincing slightly at her mistake. "But I started doing this to pick up stuff that the others might be missing from earth, normal food, spare clothes, other various supplies that just aren't on the ship. I still have a few more things I need to pick up or else the more of what I've already gathered is useless."

Shiro remained quiet as he listened. "Fine" he eventually agreed. "But I'm going with so you don't get side tracked. We're only staying for an hour or two. Come on" The leader compromised before giving her a friendly nudge and getting into the speeder to drive. Latia smiled at first until she saw him get in.

"Whoa, hey" She started before getting in after and sitting on him. "This happens to be mine, thank you. I get to drive," Latia stated. Sure she wasn't comfortable just jumping into his speeder before but this one was hers, she'd had no qualms with sitting on people that take her seat.

"Ok, go ahead then. I don't think I'd be able to sit on the outer shell of the speeder so this will have to work." He pointed out and she did have to admit it was a fair point to make since her speeder was smaller than his.

"Fine," She replied though internally she was kicking herself.

"Yeah, this is not fine. You're sitting in some really cute guy's lap that happens to be kinda your boss and your brothers probably fuming ready to come kick your butt and you have to drive like this. This is a flawed plan! wait what was that first point again?" her mind raced though she eventually shook her head to clear away the thoughts and started up the device and sped off.

She was able to let out a sigh of relief once she had made it to her apartment complex so they could switch over to her car which was much more spacious and better suited for gathering supplies.

"So what all did you need to pick up?" Shiro Asked as Latia drove around the crowded city.

"Just a few small appliances for heating up the food I'd bought. The kitchen in the castle is kinda, lacking in the cooking aspect, it's more like a bunch of fancy vending machines." Latia replied as she pulled into the parking lot of a large multi-mart. "the energy converters that Pidge made should be able to get them to work." She added as she put the car into park and exited.

"Ok, seems simple enough." He replied as he followed Latia as she got a cart and went into the store and started navigating to the home appliance section of the store. The walls and shelves all loudly proclaimed the sales and deals for the post-holiday season.

"Huh, never thought I'd say this but thank goodness for the holidays being over, it looks like I might get a steal or two," Latia commented quietly as she looked around at the different price tags. This did bring a question to Shiro's mind as he looked to Latia concerned.

"How are you paying for all this?" He asked figuring the bulk of what she'd bought so far couldn't have been cheap.

"Rude" She replied as she looked back to him with a half-hearted frown though she figured she'd explain anyways since he seemed worried. "I was actually in the middle of saving up a nest egg to buy a house before I got thrown into this whole crazy train of outer space wars. Not to toot my own horn but it was pretty sizable." She stated with a tone that denoted some pride in her hard work in building up her savings though she left out the details of her brother helping out with closing up her earthly life by working on selling her car and cleaning out her apartment.

Eventually, she stopped walking as they made it to the appliance section and started looking over the different options. As she looked over different mini stove/oven sets she started to grumble.

"Something the matter?" He asked figuring if he could move on from his last question that would be for the best.

"All of these only go to 270 degrees what the heck were they thinking when designing these? That's not going to cook anything." Latia asked frustrated as she continued to look over the different Specs listed on the machines. Shiro Leaned over to look at it as well before giving a short chuckle and pointing to where it listed the temperatures.

"It's in celsius" He pointed out causing Latia to lightly blush from embarrassment.

"Oh….." She replied not sure how to proceed before simply picking one up at random and putting it in the cart.

"Hm. do you think that they'll need a microwave or a toaster." she eventually asked as she picked up a small box for a 2 slice toaster as she also tried to push past her blunder.

"I think if we just get enough pots and pans that the mini oven should be enough since it has a stove top to it." Shiro replied as he looked over to the wall of cookie tools.

"True," Latia agreed as she walked over to the wall and looked it over. "I wonder how they'll react to waking up and seeing everything." She mused as she picked out various different cooking supplies, bowls, measuring cups, measuring spoons and the like to put in the cart.

Shiro thought over it as well for a few moments picturing what each of the paladins would be excited to see from Latia's unapproved hoarding pile. "It is kinda like a space Christmas huh," Shiro replied with a smile before noticing a stack of discounted fake trees at the end of the isle. "Should we pick up a tree," He joked as he motioned to the stacked boxes.

"we're a bit late for that. But I have to admit I do like the idea." She replied as she looked at the boxes and continued to work over the idea, "We can just make our own holiday, we can call it spacemas" Latia suggested before chuckling at the thought of surprising the others when they woke up. "We'd need decorations with it. A bare Spacemas tree is just kinda depressing."

Shiro shook his head as his joke seemed to be taken seriously. "Should I go grab one then?" he asked figuring he should confirm that before walking off.

"Sure, your mission is to go find a good tree and decorations for it. I'll be here." She agreed, figuring it would be a good way to save on time if Shiro helped gather things too. As he walked off Latia continued to think of what else to get before picking up a few boxes of pancake mix and some small things of syrup along with with some other small holiday baking supplies like frosting, fresh fruit, chocolates, and a few cans of whipped cream a frozen chicken, ham, sausage and bacon before returning to the cart. She'd even picked up some crafting supplies to make a Voltron tree topper rather than the typical angel or a star.

By the time Shiro returned with his arm full of boxes he looked at the nearly full cart with a perplexed expression. "I thought you said we were just buying a few essentials."

Latia jokingly made a face as she looked away before laughing "To be fair you left me unattended... And it's my money so I can buy a few extra things." She continued to joke as he put the fake tree and decorations in with the other supplies.

Shiro gave a quick roll of his eyes before looking it over. "Ok, anything else?" He asked as he watched Latia put a rice cooker/steamer combo into the cart too.

"I think that's about everything, do you think a small fridge would be useful?" She asked curiously as she looked at a few of the smaller 4-foot cubes.

"Not really, most of what you're buying is non-perishable," he replied before remembering the extras in the cart. "Maybe a cooler and a bag of ice." he corrected since he didn't want the food to spoil. Latia nodded before pushing the rather heavy cart to go and find the coolers.

"Do you want me to take care of that?" He asked as he watched the rather comical sight of the small woman pretty much leaning into the cart to get it to move.

"I think I got it." She replied as she worked to maneuver the cart. He watched a few moments longer before taking a few longer strides so he could walk in front of the cart and pull it from that end by hooking his metal finger onto the metal grate of the cart and make it easier for Latia to manage.

This made it much faster for the two to get the cooler and ice then check out with the addition of a fair number of candies as an additional impulse gift purchase for the others waiting back on the ship. Once the various supplies were loaded up in the car Latia drove as close as she could to the area where the white lion was hiding so she could drop of Shiro with the bags and boxes. While he worked on getting those to the Lion Latia dropped off her car and got back in the speeder to ride it over to the Lion.

Getting the speeder back into the bay along with all the supplies that were already there and with the additional purchases was a task and a half but after some shuffling around everything fit. Once everything was in order a quick wormhole later and they were back to the Ship and landed in the hanger and the two quickly got to work prepping for the impulse holiday they'd created.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just now getting back into writing fan-fiction. if you have any questions, comments, critiques, or requests feel free to message me or leave a comment :)


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